Learning Beyond The Classroom

One of the most important and potentially challenging aspects of the study-abroad experience is creating a meaningful engagement with the culture of your host country. Arcadia’s Co-curricular Learning Certificate (CLC) offers you a formal incentive for your not-for-credit development. This is our way of recognizing your thoughtful participation, reflection and rich learning achieved from getting involved in the local culture and communities.

Choose an Arcadia theme or create your own – Are you interested in volunteering at a local shelter? Do you want to join the Kayak club or investigate local cuisine? You decide where your passion is, engage with the local community and document your experience to earn a CLC.

Tell us about your experience – Earn a CLC by submitting a reflective essay, video, blog, video diary or photo journal illustrating the learning and development you achieved over 15+ hours of participation in your chosen activity.

Boost your resume – The CLC Certificate highlights the out of class learning you’ve gained and shows employers how you have developed critical thinking and analysis skills that will set you apart from other candidates.

Read about other student’s CLCs in our blogs, on the site or as published works in IMPACT magazine: From Chinese & Zumba to Urban Farming with Papi.

CLC Themes – England

The Imagined City

Consider four artistic interpretations of your study-abroad home and its environs. Who has written about/sung about/painted it? How does that cultural history affect our current ideas about it?

British Food & Culture

Explore how your corner of Britain feeds itself. What is its relationship to agricultural industry and how has it changed over time? Activities include visits and research into the history of market culture and farming.

Sacred Symbols

Create your own tour of hallowed places in your environs. You can choose traditional venues of worship such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, and mosques, as well as considering other iconic sites or symbols that hold spiritual meaning, whether religious or secular.

Create Your Own!

Use the CLC program as an incubator for your own passions. Activities: Singing in a local choir? Joining a football team? Becoming a regular at an independent book shop? Tutoring? Follow your interests and aspirations.

Community Engagement

Choose a community-focused organization in your area that accepts volunteer workers and participate in their initiatives at least four times throughout the term.

Environmental Exploration

Learn about the natural environment beyond the campus. Your engagement may be filtered through relevant outdoor activities, visits to conservation areas, or independent exploration of striking features in the local landscape.

The Multicultural Map

Whether being invaded and conquered, or representing the seat of British Imperialism, this island has never been isolated. Consider the multicultural influences that have shaped and continue to impact your local community. What is the history of ethnic diversity in your area? Were the Romans or the Vikings there? Did indentured peoples pass through on their way elsewhere? Which formerly colonized nations continue to have cultural presence in the life of your town or city?